Getting fit over the winter months… Extended (due to English summer)!!

A simple review of Nintendo Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board

This was a great investment, although we had to wait 3 weeks for there to even be stock in the UK! Seriously, every one had sold out. I even wrote to Nintendo to see why there was nothing available, the Wii is that good! Of course there were some on eBay for £150, sods.

I am not a gamer. When I was a teenager we had a SNES with Mario games and also the enormous gun blaster which you could shoot moles with. However in an effort to be more active in the evenings, and not just watch TV, we invested in the Wii in order to stand up more and even get a little more co-ordinated.

Wii Fit has some great, fun games to get you more active and improve your balance. There are also some more serious and tedious activities (for spectators mainly) like the yoga and boxing, great to play but rubbish to watch. The only negative with the Wii Fit is the ridiculous Wii Fit Age calculator which assesses you by balance and weight only, not your overall fitness. A better name would be Wii Balance Age or Wii Demoraliser.

The games range from frustrating but addictive balance games, like Table Tilt, Segway Circuit and Snowball Fight to semi-aerobic games such as Rhythm Kung Fu and Skateboard Arena and ridiculous games like the bird flap game, ‘Bird's Eye Bulls Eye’, where you stand on the Balance Board and flap your arms. Gets the heart rate up though.

There are also some great dinner party games. Being in my late 20s (just about) we find ourselves either having a go at bowling, ski jumping, archery or golf. Hilarious after a sumptuous dinner, and a fair bit of wine. Great fun for all involved. One, not so enthusiastic friend, managed to bowl sitting down which was quite impressive, and a little upsetting…